第120章

Land, house, furniture, each in its turn, was taken under some one of the numerous executions which were issued; and the old man himself would have been immured in prison had he not escaped the vigilance of the officers, and fled.

"The implacable animosity of Heyling, so far from being satiated by the success of his persecution, increased a hundredfold with the ruin he inflicted.On being informed of the old man's flight, his fury was unbounded.

He gnashed his teeth with rage, tore the hair from his head, and assailed with horrid imprecations the men who had been entrusted with the writ.

He was only restored to comparative calmness by repeated assurances of the certainty of discovering the fugitive.Agents were sent in quest of him, in all directions; every stratagem that could be invented was resorted to, for the purpose of discovering his place of retreat; but it was all in vain.Half a year had passed over, and he was still undiscovered.

"At length, late one night, Heyling, of whom nothing had been seen for many weeks before, appeared at his attorney's private residence, and sent up word that a gentleman wished to see him instantly.Before the attorney, who had recognised his voice from above stairs, could order the servant to admit him, he had rushed up the staircase, and entered the drawing-room pale and breathless.Having closed the door, to prevent being overheard, he sunk into a chair, and said, in a low voice:

"`Hush! I have found him at last.'

"`No!' said the attorney.`Well done, my dear sir; well done.'

"`He lies concealed in a wretched lodging in Camden Town,' said Heyling.

`Perhaps it is as well, we did lose sight of him, for he has been living alone there, in the most abject misery, all the time, and he is poor--very poor.'

"`Very good,' said the attorney."You will have the caption made to-morrow, of course?'

"`Yes,' replied Heyling.`Stay! No! The next day.You are surprised at my wishing to postpone it,' he added, with a ghastly smile; `but I had forgotten.The next day is an anniversary in his life: let it be done then.'

"`Very good,' said the attorney.`Will you write down instructions for the officer?'

"`No; let him meet me here, at eight in the evening, and I will accompany him, myself.'

"They met on the appointed night, and, hiring a hackney coach, directed the driver to stop at that corner of the old Pancras Road, at which stands the parish workhouse.By the time they alighted there, it was quite dark;and, proceeding by the dead wall in front of the Veterinary Hospital, they entered a small by-street, which is, or was at that time, called Little College Street, and which, whatever it may be now, was in those days a desolate place enough, surrounded by little else than fields and ditches.

"Having drawn the travelling cap he had on half over his face, and muffled himself in his cloak, Heyling stopped before the meanest-looking house in the street, and knocked gently at the door.It was at once opened by a woman, who dropped a curtesy of recognition, and Heyling, whispering the officer to remain below, crept gently up-stairs, and, opening the door of the front room, entered at once.

"The object of his search and his unrelenting animosity, now a decrepit old man, was seated at a bare deal table, on which stood a miserable candle.

He started on the entrance of the stranger, and rose feebly to his feet.

"`What now, what now?' said the old man.`What fresh misery is this?

What do you want here?'

"`A word with you ,' replied Heyling.As he spoke, he seated himself at the other end of the table, and, throwing off his cloak and cap, disclosed his features.

"The old man seemed instantly deprived of the power of speech.He fell backward in his chair, and, clasping his hands together, gazed on the apparition with a mingled look of abhorrence and fear.

"`This day six years,' said Heyling, `I claimed the life you owed me for my child's.Beside the lifeless form of your daughter, old man, I swore to live a life of revenge.I have never swerved from my purpose for a moment's space; but if I had, one thought of her uncomplaining, suffering look, as she drooped away, or of the starving face of our innocent child, would have nerved me to my task.My first act of requital you well remember:

this is my last.'

"The old man shivered, and his hands dropped powerless by his side.

"`I leave England to-morrow,' said Heyling, after a moment's pause.

`To-night I consign you to the living death to which you devoted her--a hopeless prison--'

"He raised his eyes to the old man's countenance, and paused.He lifted the light to his face, set it gently down, and left the apartment.

"`You had better see to the old man,' he said to the woman as he opened the door, and motioned the officer to follow him into the street.`I think he is ill.' The woman closed the door, ran hastily up-stairs, and found him lifeless.

"Beneath a plain grave-stone, in one of the most peaceful and secluded churchyards in Kent, where wild flowers mingle with the grass, and the soft landscape around forms the fairest spot in the garden of England, lie the bones of the young mother and her gentle child.But the ashes of the father do not mingle with theirs; nor, from that night forward, did the attorney ever gain the remotest clue to the subsequent history of his queer client."As the old man concluded his tale, he advanced to a peg in one corner, and taking down his hat and coat, put them on with great deliberation;and, without saying another word, walked slowly away.As the gentleman with the Mosaic studs had fallen asleep, and the major part of the company were deeply occupied in the humorous process of dropping melted tallow-grease into his brandy and water, Mr.Pickwick departed unnoticed, and having settled his own score, and that of Mr.Weller, issued forth, in company with that gentleman, from beneath the portal of the Magpie and Stump.1 Better.But this is past, in a better age, and the prison exists no longer.

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